Hawks' Trevor Gretzky doing it by the numbers

Trevor Gretzky, son of Wayne Gretzky talks about his dad and playing baseball.

VANCOUVER - Trevor Gretzky is taking it one No. 9 at a time.

Just beginning what figures to be a long journey through baseball’s minor-league ranks, the 20-year-old outfielder with the Boise Hawks -- and son of Wayne -- acknowledges the No. 9 on the back of his jersey is a tribute to his dad.

“I have looked up to my dad ever since I was a little kid watching him play and I’m honoured to wear No. 9,” he said before the Hawks met the Vancouver Canadians at Nat Bailey Stadium on Wednesday night. “Maybe one day No. 99, I don’t know.”

Personable and soft-spoken like his dad, Gretzky drew a large contingent of media before the game where he talked about just being one of the guys chasing a Major League-dream.

Before his dad became hockey’s greatest player, he was a pretty fair baseball player. Gretzky said he leans on him for advice, especially on the mental side of the game, as he attempts to climb the baseball ranks.

“He is the great one, I try to do my own thing,” he said. “I am out here grinding like all the other guys. He tells me work hard and be mentally stronger than anyone else. He has helped me with the mental side of the game, being a baseball player himself. He grew up playing, he loves the game and he gets out here as much as he can. So it is pretty cool.”

Trevor’s dad just may show up this weekend when the Hawks and Canadians close out a five-game series at The Nat.

“I think he will,” he said. “I think he’ll be here this weekend.”

Hopefully, the C’s set aside a couple of tickets. Saturday’s game is already a sellout and not many tickets remain for Sunday’s series-ending contest.

Gretzky was selected in the seventh round of the 2011 Major League draft by the Chicago Cubs. He missed his first year after arm surgery and played last year in the Arizona Rookie League, where he batted .304 in 35 games.

The Northwest League has been more of a struggle. Gretzky has not found a regular spot in the lineup, although he did start Wednesday night’s game in left field for the Hawks and batted eighth.

Gretzky entered the game batting .207 and had appeared in just eight of Boise’s first 25 games. At 6-foot-4 he possesses nice size, but needs to bulk up his wiry 190-pound frame.

““Everything,” Gretzky said when asked where he needs to improve. “I am not close to where I want to be. I need to be bigger, stronger, faster. I have a long road ahead of me. We’ll see what happens.”

Manager Gary Van Tol said Gretzky faces the same challenges as most of the players on his young team.

“As far as I am concerned he’s just another 19- or 20-year-old who is learning how to handle the ropes in professional baseball,” Van Tol said. “He’s obviously been well-schooled and handles himself very well but it’s a neat deal for him.

“We are trying to find out what position he is best going to be served and he is spending some time in the outfield and first base. Obviously, he swings from the left side. He just needs to get bigger and stronger and go through the process. But I think left field is going to be his best position. The bat is going to be very important.”

As a native of Pincher Creek, Alta., Van Tol didn’t have to be told about Gretzky’s famous father “I haven’t told Wayne I was a big Flames’ fan growing up when he was winning Stanley Cups in Edmonton,” Van Tol said with a smile. “Trevor is a great kid, you just saw him first-hand, up close and personal.”

The question everyone asks Trevor is why not hockey? He said growing up in Southern California had a lot to do with it. There wasn’t a rink close by and all his friends were playing baseball and football.

He was quarterback on his high school football team but tore his labrum during his senior season. That made baseball his best option.

He credits his dad and mom, Janet, with allowing him to chart his own path.

“My parents showed me every sport, they introduced me to everything. They kind of just let me do what I wanted to do. They never really pushed me toward anything. Baseball just happened to work out and the Cubs organization gave me an opportunity.”

He also said growing up in the Los Angeles area allowed him to be Trevor Gretzky and not Wayne Gretzky’s son. And his dad could just be a dad.

““I was lucky, growing up in LA, no one really bothered him,” he said. “I was just like every other kid, My dad was like every other dad. He comes out and supports me and I love him for that.

“He just goes and buys a ticket and watches like all the other dads. He is the most normal guy there is out there and I love him for that.”

Predictably, Gretzky takes some ribbing from his teammates about the media attention he gets in pretty much every stop on the Northwest League circuit.

Asked if his teammates had more questions about his dad or his somewhat famous older sister, Paulina, Gretzky just smiled and said: “No comment.”

This is not Gretzky’s first visit to Vancouver.

“Last time I was here it was for the Olympics in 2010,” he said. “It’s a great city and I’m privileged to be out here playing.”

He has no timetable for finding success.

“I have learned a lot,” he said. “I was in the Arizona League last year and got a whole year down there under my belt and I learned more in one year than probably my whole life.

“I come out here and work hard, just like all the other guys on my team, and I can’t really set a time frame. . .Ever since I was little my dad has preached to me work hard. You do the right things and play hard on the field and good things will happen.”

And if good things do happen, who knows, maybe Trevor Gretzky will one day add another 9 to that jersey.

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Trevor Gretzky, son of Wayne, plays baseball for the Boise Hawks who are in town to face the Vancouver Canadians on July 10, 2013. Here, Trevor meets the media before the first game of the Northwest League series.

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